FanPost

Considering good memories and Natrone Means

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Photo courtesy of bestsportsphotos.com

August the 20th is fast approaching. This date should mean little to you, but for me it will forever be a marker in the sand. It is the day where I was fortunate enough to have a prostatectomy to mitigate the spread of an aggressive Gleason 7 biopsy result. In the grand scheme of things, my cancer diagnosis was the best possible situation for someone with the disease. It had yet to spread beyond the prostate, and while certain aspects of my life might never be the same again, for all intents and purposes I would recover and continue with my life as close to "normal" as possible.

Yet the Fates would not be done with me. Earlier this year a lodged kidney stone caused me to become septic, which led to another stay in the hospital. To make the story even better it occurred just as COVID-19 was becoming all the rage.

Now, here I sit. Typing away at my second article since navigating the recovery maze of two hospital visits, grateful that I have the free time to meditate on sports as opposed to wondering from where my next meal or paycheck will come.

Our present situation, and by situation I mean one of existential concern and not pedestrian distractions such as sports, is littered with any number of weight bearing subjects. What does it mean to be patriotic? Check. What does a worthy president look like? Got that too. Social and cultural shifts? Make mine a double, and keep the bottle close. Then there is the nagging pandemic, coupled with the growing concern over unemployment, causing folks to consider what a stable economic system is and what it means to care for citizens during a crisis.

When you write it down the magnitude seems more and more unbearable.

Enter the pedestrian distractions. The importance of letting the mind wander into that garden of delight, if only for two or three hours. Books and movies serve the same purpose, but we can all admit there is something special about immersing yourself in the team to which your identity is coupled. It is family dinner, both the good and the bad kind.

The outcome tends to define that.

Why am I in this mindset? Recently I shifted my soccer fandom from Newcastle United to Leeds United. To make a long story short, my family line hails from Fulford in York. Leed United is the closest big club to that town, but I opted to follow Newcastle because they were in the Premier League at the time. After years of suffering through relegations, an awful owner, and now a failed sale to a Saudi group that was associated with the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, I finally cut ties with Newcastle.

This wasn’t easy, and frankly the past four years of actively following Leeds in the Championship gave me no promise for promotion. Ever. Thankfully, the collapse during the 2018/19 was purged from memory thanks to a Leeds squad that embraced the restart and won the Championship 2019/20 season.

More could be said here but I am seriously digressing. This is a Jaguars site, after all.

My love for professional sports had been waning for some time, and with the halting of all sports I found myself not missing it. Then soccer restarted and that part of me, the one who just wanted to watch the game and cheer, was reborn. Maybe this coincided with my Twitter pause, or maybe it had to do with my promise to not listen to local sports radio. Frankly, I do not care. The appreciation for the athletes, and their role as entertainers, became my central focus. Not debating stats or positing the future. Being in the moment of the game in front of me.

When I sat down to write my thoughts on this topic, my focus was going to be about the player the Jaguars had failed to acquire during past drafts and how some were touted as potential Hall of Fame candidates. Then it hit me. Why do I care about those players? They do not wear the teal and black. They do not represent the city.

Names began to swirl in my head, and for some reason the name "Natrone Means" came to the forefront. That glorious 1996 season, when an expansion team from a small Southern city went on an incredible late seasons winning streak. A team that was gifted a chance at the playoffs thanks to an impossible miss by Hall of Fame kicker Morten Andersen.

Looking back at the standings, I had forgotten that only two teams finished with records worse than 7-9. The Jaguars were one of three teams that finished 9-7.

Running back James Stewart, the primary back, was injured for most of that final run, and while Means was no where near Stewart’s speed and agility, the bruising dimension he brought to the Jaguars attack made statement to opposing defenses. It was that physical style of play that coach Tom Coughlin preached, and the fans were more than happy to watch it compliment the playmaking ability of Mark Brunell, Jimmy Smith, and Keenan McCardell.

During that playoff run we had friends with no interest in sports, spending three hours of their weekend with us, jumping and cheering this magical team, with Natrone being the gift you never knew you wanted or needed. During that time we were young, just starting careers, and beginning to raise our children. We had our challenges, but whatever stresses caused by finances and parenting we had became invisible to us.

The recent history of the Jaguars is littered enough bad memories to fill TIAA Bank Field, and should we desire, our focus an easily drift to them. Articles of the destruction left in their wake are as easy to write as calling into a radio show to dump our anger. But I’m going to think about Natrone Means. Of how he came from no where to help define an unknown future.

August 20th is my reminder that "this too shall pass", until it doesn’t. In re-reading that sentence I am reminded of another friend who is battling metastatic bone cancer with the most positive attitude I have ever seen because she wants to create good memories that her friends and family can reflect on when she is gone. Amidst all that is chaotic, there are memories had and memories to create that will serve us when we need them the most. The Jaguars have given us that, we just have to remember them.

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